Disparate Documentaries: Bin Laden's Man In U.s., Death Cab For Cutie

TV EYE

August 28, 2006|By ROGER CATLIN

The barrage of images of falling towers that would otherwise mark 9/11 fifth- anniversary programming gets a slightly different treatment on the second of three nights of documentaries on the National Geographic Channel.

``Triple Cross: Bin Laden's Spy in America''(9 p.m.) tells the fascinating story of Ali A. Mohamed, an Egyptian Army sergeant turned U.S. citizen and Army enlistee turned triple agent, working for the CIA and FBI while feeding information to al-Qaida and Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

According to the film, based in part on a book by Peter Lance, Mohamed helped stake out East African embassies bombed by al-Qaida in 1998, trained terrorists on the first World Trade Center attack in 1993 and came up with the idea of multiple hijacked aircraft striking major U.S. targets.

Later, in U.S. custody in 2000 and after pleading guilty to five counts of conspiracy to kill Americans and strike U.S. targets around the world, his information was the main source of the famously ignored ``Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.'' memo.

Remote Patrol

The first of a monthly series of music documentaries, Justin Mitchell's 2005 ``Drive Well, Sleep Carefully: On the Road With Death Cab for Cutie'' (Starz, 10 p.m.), chronicles the ``Transatlanticism'' tour of the Seattle band that culminated in modest fame and a major-label contract. Between thoughtful comments of band members are a number of striking live performances, which kick more than they do on record.

If you're wondering what happened to the young people featured in the series ``TransGeneration'' last year, there is a ``TransGeneration Reunion'' (Sundance, 10 p.m.) of Gabbie, Lucas, Raci and T.J. to get you up to speed.

It's tough to keep that old gang of escapees together on ``Prison Break'' (Fox, 8 p.m.). And never has a girlfriend been so interested in her boyfriend's laundry as is Marcy on ``Vanished'' (Fox, 9 p.m.).

Call-in quiz shows have been the rage in Europe for years, but they never made it in the U.S. because of the time-zone disparity. The new two-hour interactive ``Midnight Money Madness'' (TBS, midnight) tries to solve that problem by presenting different live shows for each coast. Viewers can call, text-message or log on to the Internet to compete in games led by a pair of ``comic hosts.''

New for preschoolers, ``Wow! Wow! Wubbzy'' (Nickelodeon, 11 a.m.) is, despite its cutesy name, well-designed enough and with decent enough music that it won't completely sour parents on the show. Wubbzy is a cheerful little yellow squib that looks like a Lego piece with a big, thick black outline.